Analysis of Tracing His Name in the Sand
Gisela Vigil 1959 (Cuba)
He worked from dawn until night
in a white tee shirt not a white collar.
My father.
A man of few words.
If ever he held a crumb in his rugged hands
it was only for a moment,
for without hesitation he would give
what was his, to someone else.
His footsteps, as heavy as his silence,
creating a paradox,
like a scream within a whisper.
His lack of words merely a camouflage
for compassion and his keen sense
of the needs of others.
Especially mine, for I was his little girl.
On a wintry March evening,
before leaving on vacation
he left me with some things
to take care of while he was gone.
Made me repeat over and over and over
the combination to the safety deposit box.
After the drill I knew I’d remember it,
so I didn’t bother
to write down the numbers.
He’d be returning
from his Caribbean oasis
in a few weeks,
choosing fresh air and sun
over another year of chemo.
We never spoke about it
but I understood his decision to go,
for a bond existed between this man
who rarely spoke and the child who was accustomed to his heavy footsteps.
Unspoken words, the norm.
And though Death was also mute,
it did not hide.
Triumphantly it stood
on the tropic shoreline
adorned with palm trees,
tracing my father’s name in the sand,
awaiting his arrival.
81-67–15 or was it 61-87-15?
I wish I would had
written down the numbers.
Scheme | XAAXXXXXXBAXXCX DEXXABFACDXXEG FGXXXXXXXXXX FXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 0011110110 110 01111 110110101101 11101010 101010111 111111 111101110 010010 10101010 111110010 10100111 101110 01011111101 1010110 01101010 111111 11111111 110110010010 001010100101 10011110101 11110 111010 11010 110100010 0011 101101 100101110 1101011 1101101011 1010100111 11010011101011101 010101 0111101 1111 010011 10101 01111 101101001 0101010 111 11111 101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,374 |
Words | 289 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 14, 12, 3 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 259 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
About this poem
A tribute to my father. He passed away 33 years ago while on vacation.
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Written on 2008
Submitted by Giselavigil on January 06, 2024
Modified by Giselavigil on January 07, 2024
- 1:26 min read
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"Tracing His Name in the Sand" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/177563/tracing-his-name-in-the-sand>.
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